Thug Life assessment: The actual drawback with this Mani Ratnam Kamal Haasan movie is that its story begins off with some promise, however someplace across the midway mark, it would not depart the much-expected affect.
Cast: Kamal Haasan, Silambarasan TR and Trisha Krishnan
Director: Mani Ratnam
Rating: ★★1/2
Mani Ratnam’s much-awaited movie of the 12 months Thug Life has received every little thing the viewers want – feelings, drama, motion, suspense, and a star-studded forged. And after all, among the best director-actor duo within the sport. On paper, this clearly feels like an absolute winner. However, someway, it comes throughout as a little bit of a shock…. and never in a means the viewers had anticipated. Because when probably the most impeccable and revered director like Mani Ratnam groups up with a legend like Kamal Haasan, one expects a film that’s each particular and hanging, if not likely a game-changer. Instead, what the viewers are provided is a typical massy movie and never the one the place Mani Ratnam does his traditional magic.
Thug Life – with its story of an outdated gangster coping with guilt, destiny, love and demise – sounds deep. Unfortunately, a significant a part of it comes throughout as flat and acquainted, and there are moments once you start to query if that is the movie directed by Mani Ratnan. The film begins with Kamal Haasan, whose again faces the digicam and units the tone with a little bit of thriller proper from the get-go. His dialogue ‘Ye mere aur Yamraj ke beech ki kahani hai’ is ample to know that it’s constructing as much as one thing huge, and his presence alone provides weight. Soon the issues unfold, that sturdy begin doesn’t actually maintain the identical vitality all over.
You could get Nayakan vibes within the film’s black-and-white sequences proven within the first half. A clean-shaven Kamal Haasan will deliver again the reminiscences of Velu Naicker. One might also really feel the sequences of a younger boy at his dad’s funeral acquainted. As the story (which began from 1994) progresses, we’re advised that the boy’s father was caught in a shootout between the cops and gangster Rangaraaya Sakthivel (Kamal Haasan). Sakthivel finally ends up taking the child in, although the boy has no thought how his dad actually died or that his sister, Chandra, continues to be alive. As he grows up, the boy – Amar (Silambarasan) turns into Sakthivel’s right-hand man. What precisely the gang does or how they function out of a hazy model of Delhi? That half stays fuzzy.
While Sakthivel decides to lift his son, Amar, hee additionally make a promise to seek out his lacking sister, Chandra, who couldn’t be discovered through the chaos. When we’re taken to Sakthivel’s life in 2016, we’re made acquainted with his candy moments with spouse Jeeva (Abhirami), his affair with Indrani (Trisha), his bond with Amar (Silambarasan), and his animosity with Sadhanand, brother-in-law Deepak (Ali Fazal). With a lot occurring, it has all the correct items, however sadly, Thug Life doesn’t keep grounded within the emotional core it kicked off with.
Nonetheless, the primary half manages to maneuver with sharp focus and is truthfully, enjoyable to observe. There are a number of moments that maintain the viewers invested like Amar’s bond with Sakthivel, Amar’s dramatic desert entry, Sakthivel flirting along with his mistress Indrani (Trisha), being an emotional father, and taking over rivals like a professional. Even although these moments maintain the primary half quick paced, you someway really feel that the true story solely begins after Sakthivel’s betrayal.
Rengaraya Sakthivel is a type of characters you’ll be able to’t fairly pin down and because of this he’s so riveting. He’s good however a complete insurgent, and is aware of when he must be cold-blooded. But this doesn’t cease him for voicing his ideas on ladies’s training and reveals no qualms in getting his daughter marry exterior their caste. One could name him a contradictory character, however Kamal Haasan completely nails it. He brings completely different layers and nuance to Sakthivel in a means solely he can.
Kamal impresses in each function – as a husband, a lover, a father and even in his beast mode. There’s a sequence within the movie, the place he’s injected with a drug to make him sleep. Even although he’s barely acutely aware, he’s pressured to enter a struggle. He’s bleeds, laughs, throws punches and does every little thing to remain in management. That’s what Kamal is – impeccable in each means. And Silambarasan TR holds his personal too as Amar. He impresses the viewers with a personality that comes with an attention-grabbing mix of power and softness. Even in Kamal Haasan’s presence, he manages to shine. All in all, the 163-minute-long Thug Life is gripping and pleasant in components, however do not go fir it pondering it is going to recreate the Nayakan magic.
